A Southern Lady's Manifesto

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Monthly Archives: June 2015

(*While I’m specifically talking about white/black races here, I think this is applicable to all races. If we only make this about black/white, we will have the same problem a few years from now, only with a different minority.)

I’ve debated writing this for a while now. As a white Southerner, writing about race brings with it a lot of fear. Fear of saying the wrong things, of using the wrong terms. I think that might be why a lot of us don’t want to talk about racism in America—because we’re afraid of insulting someone when we’re genuinely trying to understand and make things right. I think most of us would rather just keep our mouths shut and blend into the background and see how this whole thing plays out.

But it’s all worth it, because we need to start talking about this.

I don’t have a prompt for this essay, or even an end goal. I’m just tired of being an outsider; I want to be a part of the conversation and I want to stop seeing my black friends hurting.